The Black Cat of Ardentmill
by Mishieru Hime
Summary: In the crafting town of Ardentmill, there is a rumor about a cat wielding a cannon. A teenage gamer is waiting for one of his/her games to come in the mail, so s/he joins MapleStory after being nagged by his/her friends. But what happens when he/she encounters the cat while making a rare ring?


**Disclaimer: MapleStory is owned by Nexon, while the Black Cat of Ardentmill is an original and fictional character by XgrantwallX. I don't own both of them.**

**I'm really sorry if this confused you. I changed it a bit so it's told from the player and the character's POV.**

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**Player's POV:**

I am your average teenager who likes to play and pirate the latest video games. At my school, there was a trend for a game called "MapleStory". Everyone in my school played it, from that one shunned outcast, to the famous quarterback who gets a lot of date invites from the girls. Everyone, except for me. However, one text changed that view on that childish game. I refused to play it at first, but after the populars convinced me, I gave in. Most of my time was now chatting with my friends on MapleStory instead of texting each other.

On the day I joined MapleStory, the new Renegades update (the one with Phantom) was released, but I didn't want to follow the crowd. Instead, I made a Cleric. It wasn't easy training in peace without being ambushed by buff-hungry Phantoms. But I leveled up quickly thanks to offering buffs and healing skills in exchange for mesos and leech by the hour (They needed Holy Symbol/HS for training).

During the times I wasn't fighting, I was practicing making accessories in my spare time at Crafting Town. I sold Half Earrings for mesos in my free time. Along with the services I provide to the players at popular training spots, they give me a great source of income. I reached level 10 in a single hour, because I'm really funded and I can afford to buy stamina drinks and materials for myself.

In 3 days, I reached my 4th Job advancement. I heard rumors on numerous fan sites about a powerful ring called a "Dark Angelic Blessing". It was similar to the Angelic Blessing ring I bought, but the stats were more powerful and a beautiful, stronger angel can be summoned for weapon and magic attack buffs. Everyone who was at the Lion King's castle have one.

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**Character's POV:**

I attempted to collect every material to make a Dark Angelic Blessing, from the recipe to the abrasives used to make that divine ring. It took me a long time, because there weren't a lot of cheap Dark Angelic Blessing recipes, but I managed to collect everything. I walked into Crafting Town with my materials to make that divine ring. But I noticed that Crafting Town looked suspicious.

Giving an exception to the NPCs, the whole town was abandoned, except for a couple meso website spammers with random appearances. They were spamming their usual "Sell cheap mesos at (insert meso selling website here) 1000mil = $10" but they were trembling in fear while saying those annoying words. I looked behind and the spammers disappeared without a trace.

I slowly dropped down and walked to the Accessory Crafting machine. I grabbed my Accessory Crafting uniform, some tools and manufactured the ring. Success. The ring that I worked hard for was now in my hands. But then I heard a soft meow. What's weird is that I originally muted the sound so I can listen to my music playlist, but I can still hear the meowing.

"_meow."_

I assumed it was someone's pet cat and just ignored it.

"meow."

I still assumed it was the same cat, but the owner must have given it a yummy treat.

"**meow**."

"Does the cat hate me? I didn't do anything wrong." I pondered.

"**meow**."

"I guess it's time to buy new headphones from the cash shop. At least there's a few pairs on clearance."

"**MEOW**."

"SHUT UP YOU DAMN CAT!" I yelled in my head.

"meow."

"The owner must have scolded the cat." I thought.

"**MEOW**."

"OK. What was going on?" I thought.

I turned around, and then I saw it. It was a black humanoid cat with a steel cannon strapped to its back. The cat didn't look scary, it's innocent eyes would seduce the owner, but it won't seduce me. There was no owner to control that suspicious looking cat. Finally, there was no name underneath the cat. The cat was just standing there, unmoving, while making the same meowing noises. I screamed and attempted to find a place that I can flee to.

The cat started to run at me, it was moving normally while making high pitches shrieks, like if you attempted to give a cat a bath. I didn't realize that I dropped the ring while I was fleeing. The ring managed to buy me time, because the cat picked it up and was analyzing the stats. However, when it was done, it continued to chase me like no tomorrow. The background turned from a lovely shade of light blue to a gruesome red sky.

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**Player's POV:**

Because I was wearing headphones while playing, the meowing became deafening and it scared a couple other family members who were in the same room as I was.

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**Character's POV:**

I didn't know that there was a lifesaving golden portal leading to the top of Ardentmill and to the exit, but when I realized that, it was too late. We were past the portal already and I was cornered near the locked wooden doors of the mines and the herb patches. The cat pulled out its cannon and pointed it at me. A blue-white orb built up in the cannon and I was shot by that nasty looking orb.

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**Player's POV:**

I was greeted with a popup from the cat that was similar to the GM's Hack reason. "You have been blocked by the Black Cat for the ? reason". I pressed OK, the game crashed, and my computer turned black. It just shut down by itself. I managed to get my computer working again. After attempting to log in again, my dreams were crushed. I was banned until 2999 "because of ?". I quietly sobbed while I asked a couple people on MapleStory fan sites and sent a ticket to Nexon.

No one believed me on the fan sites, and I got trolled because of my experience. The experience with Nexon's customer support was way worse. They accused me of illegal charging, when I never bought a single meso from a website or bought Nexon Cash with mesos.

Fed up, I quit. A couple students at school questioned me about why I quit, but I only told a few experience players about it to protect other students from that insane cat. I forgot that I ordered a game on the Internet and my mom gave it to me out of the blue. I eventually enjoyed that game, but I will never forget about the Black Cat of Ardentmill.


End file.
